A wide of variety hinge types, shapes and styles have long been used to attach lids to boxes used, for instance, for jewelry, stationary and cigars. It is typically desirable to inlet hinge parts in one or both of the lid and box to enable the lid to close tightly and to make hinge installation attractive. Such inletting can be accomplished by tracing hinge parts on the box or lid in which the parts are to be inlet and removing lid or box material with a router or chisels or operating an electric router free-hand. Doing so is time consuming, and successfully doing so requires substantial skill. The small sizes of many box hinges and the delicate nature of box components in which they must be inlaid make the mortising task particularly difficult.
The challenges described above associated with cutting mortises to inlet hinge components in boxes and lids have resulted in utilization of various shop-built and commercially available templates, jigs and fixtures. Many of these jigs and fixtures suffer from similar shortcomings, including lack of adjustability, difficulty in use, and in particular, difficulty (if not impossibility) of accommodating more than one size or shape of hinge.